


Some Semblance Of Impassivity

by BohemianRhapsodyInBlue



Series: I've Had Worse [2]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, No Smut, Prison, Prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-19 03:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22204225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BohemianRhapsodyInBlue/pseuds/BohemianRhapsodyInBlue
Summary: After a case goes wrong, Neal propositions Peter as a means of apology.
Relationships: Peter Burke & Neal Caffrey
Series: I've Had Worse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540903
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	Some Semblance Of Impassivity

Neal budged ever so slightly in his seat. He’d been sat there for the past 10 minutes staring down peter’s wilting desk plant and tapping the rhythm of the William Tell Overture on his knees.

_tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap._

Calmly, of course.

_tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap. tap._

He was in fact, drumming out the rhythm about half the speed it should have been after realising that playing it fast made him feel more restless in the static office. In spite of that he hadn’t managed to get the tune out of his head so he settled for just tapping slowly. At least, he could maintain some semblance of impassivity.

Not that he was nervous. No, why would he be?

Sure, he’d fucked up.

-and he could definitely hear Hughes’ barely restrained raised voice through the walls.

-and he could just imagine the way Peter was gritting his teeth, biting back his own words, words he knew peter would unleash on him the second he stepped into his own office.

Neal let out a slow and controlled breath through his nose.

It should have been a simple case, a ‘go in, get the confession, arrest them’ kind of situation. Just a group of guys, forging some Egyptian relics. After all, Neal had developed quite the reputation for all of his successful undercover work. This should have been exactly the same. Except Neal hadn’t accounted for running into an old friend, the word friend being used very loosely in this case.

Having known of Neal’s recent career change to the ‘good’ side, the man managed to spill his drink down Neal’s front effectively cutting off the wire feed.

Something that naturally made Peter and the rest of the team wholly suspicious of him.

The men weren’t happy to find out they had a snitch in their presence and seeing where the situation was going Neal ran. Which he, quite frankly, thought was the sensible option when you have a group of men about to beat the shit out of you, or worse.

The FBI on the other hand were not inclined to believe him when they found out the men had ran off themselves with the relics.

’Neal, out.’ The conman would have startled if he wasn’t so controlled. Quite the opposite energy, it seemed, as Peter burst in, marching around his desk, and slumping heavily into his chair.

Neal sighed standing up, seeing the other man was clearly not in the mood to talk. He made his way to the door realising his lecture would have to wait ’til later.

He paused at the door.

_just fix it_

Peter was angry at him, obviously, but that was nothing new. He was good at making people angry, but normally they didn’t prolong the experience like this, especially when he could fix it so quickly.

_just fix it_

One thing he’d learnt was that the people he angered usually shared the same desires, and as long as he knew that, it was easy enough to fix problems.

_fix it fix it fix-_

’Neal.’ Peter spoke out again, exasperated.

Neal shut the door carefully and took a moment to close the blinds.

‘For god’s sake, do you want to piss me off?’

Neal drew himself up straight, donning a confident air. He turned and walked without hesitation around peter’s desk.

Peter turned in his chair watching the younger man’s movements, looking confused and thrown off at not being able to predict what Neal was going to do next.

Neal made eye contact with Peter with such certainty, before crouching onto his knees, and sitting back on his heels in front of Peter’s chair.

Immediately, he reached for Peter’s zipper, hesitation wouldn’t help him here. He’d learnt that, these things were so much easy if you didn’t think.

don’t think don’t think don’t think

They would also be so much easier if the person he reached for didn’t instantly jump up out of his chair.

’Neal! What the hell? What are you doing?’ The back of his knees bumping into his wheely chair as he tried to step back away from the man in front of him. Neal wore a calm smile.

‘I’m fixing it, don’t worry.’ He said raising up from his heels, adjusting to the new height difference so that his face would be level with Peter’s fly which he promptly undid.

’Neal! No.’ Peter stated, batting away Neal’s hands and pushing his shoulders so he fell backwards.

Neal sat and watched peter frantically do up his trousers.

He felt a pang of hurt at the clear rejection, but was more overwhelmed by the lost feeling that took over his thoughts. No one had ever pushed him away when he did this before. People usually got angry with him - and then he would make them feel better. That’s how this went.

-and now he didn’t know what to do.

Peter turned back to him, now fully covered, but with a deranged look in his eyes.

‘What the hell do you think your doing, Neal?’ Neal felt his hackles raise at the accusatory tone. This wasn’t his fault, Peter was the one breaking the routine.

‘I’m trying to make things better! Why aren’t you letting me?!’

‘Trying to make things better? I have a wife Neal, why would I want this?’

Neal started moving towards him again slightly relieved, if that was the only issue then it was all fine.

‘That doesn’t have to make a difference-‘

‘No, stay right there, we’re not doing this!’ Peter pointed at Neal’s place on the floor angrily.

Neal deflated, shuffling away a little so he could lean against the desk from where he was sat. He didn’t understand what the problem was, he’d said it wouldn’t make a difference that Peter had a wife. And it’s not like he would say anything to her, or that it would even mean anything. It was just one guy helping out another to say sorry. What was wrong with that?

For a long moment, Peter stayed there, just watching him like he didn’t trust Neal not to move.

After a while, Peter slowly sat back in his chair, still making sure to maintain at least a metre’s distance from Neal.

They stayed like that.

In silence.

Until the quiet grew too heavy and one of them had to speak.

I don’t understand.

‘I don’t understand.’ Neal spoke quietly, saying what was on his mind.

Peter let out an incredulous scoff in response.

‘You don’t understand? How do you think I feel?’

Neal turned sharply to look at him in disbelief.

‘I was just trying to fix things-’

‘-by trying to proposition me?!’ He hissed, leaning in, his eyes flickering towards the closed door like he was scared someone would hear him. Neal flinched back slightly.

‘Yeah. Well. It usually works.’ Neal muttered, lost for any other excuse. He looked away in annoyance.

Peter took a moment to take that in, calm enough now to process what had just happened.

‘Usually?’ He spoke more quietly now, like something in his voice was going to snap if he didn’t keep control.

Neal shrugged. Any other time, Peter would laugh at the way Neal was acting right now, like a sulking teenager. However, under the circumstances, Peter kept completely still, his eyes narrowing as he watched the man in front of him.

’Neal answer me honestly, you’ve done this often.’

‘That’s not a question.’ Neal retorted.

’Neal.’

Neal wilted under the sharp look Peter sent him.

‘Well yeah, not recently I guess, but yeah sometimes.’ He answered impassively.

Peter rubbed a tired hand over his face.

‘So, what you’re saying is, on more than say, two occasions you’ve offered sexual favours as, what? A ‘solution’ to a problem?’

Neal frowned.

‘Well no,’ Peter took a breath, ‘not like that, usually it just happens, and it makes whoever it is feel better, so I just go with it.’

Peter put his head in his hands.

‘But, you know, this time I took initiative.’ Neal continued. Peter cringed from behind his hands at the pride in Neal’s voice, like he was expecting some sort of praise for that. Maybe he was.

‘Ok let me rephrase that, people use you for sexual favours, as a ‘solution’ to a problem.’

Neal paused, running the words around his head.

‘Huh, yeah, I guess that’s a more accurate description.’

There was a small moment of silence.

Peter didn’t know what to say.

‘But it works, so why wouldn’t I do it?’ Neal questioned, still confused, trying to justify himself despite losing his earlier certainty in his actions.

‘Because that’s not good Neal.’ Peter said regretfully.

_that’s not good neal_

Neal huffed, standing up.

‘Yeah well, I do bad things, we already know that.’

Peter almost startled at the misinterpretation of his words, not wanting to step wrong.

‘No. No Neal, I mean those people are bad, no one should treat you like that.’

Neal looked up, not saying anything.

‘You know that right? No one has the right to use you like that.’

When Neal still didn’t say anything, Peter sighed, bracing himself for what he was about to ask.

’Neal, I know I’ve offered to talk about this before and you’ve not yet taken me up on that, but I’m asking you now, is this something you had to do in prison?’

Neal frowned.

He was not liking the implication that he had been forced to do anything. No, there was always a choice. It just so happened that the other options were usually getting beat up or shanked.

‘Yeah, so what if I did?’ He said apathetically.

Peter sighed.

Neal was getting pretty sick of hearing that sound.

‘Just, you don’t have to do that here, Neal, I don’t want you getting hurt.’

Neal clenched his fists feeling his fingers wanting to tap against his thighs again.

‘Please tell me you understand that, you’re safe here.’

Neal scoffed dismissively, feigning nonchalance.

‘I know.’

Peter watched him, knowing fully well that Neal didn’t quite get what the issue was.

‘Listen, my offer from before still stands, you can talk to me about this stuff.’

‘-and you still don’t need to worry, ok? I’m fine.’ Neal raised his eyebrows, the calm smile returning to his face, daring Peter to challenge it.

_i’m fine_

Peter wasn’t so sure about that after Neal’s admission and the fact that he clearly didn’t see anything wrong with being used for sex.

Neal gave one last confident nod before taking his escape from the office. The older man let him go, knowing he wasn’t going to get anywhere with this right now.

He just hoped Neal really was ok, or as ok as he could be.


End file.
